Like this:

Sometimes I am a bad cyclist. I do things I shouldn’t. It just seems so easy to break the rules.

Here are my three confessions:

I go the wrong way up the one way street where I live

On quiet streets I blow through stop signs

I don’t stop for streetcars for the entire time the door is open

I know I shouldn’t do them. But sometimes I think – my bike isn’t a car so why should it follow the exact same rules as a car?

For example, on my ride to work I go through Trinity Bellwoods. And I have to turn into the park via the sidewalk. Should I be get off my bike when I go on the sidewalk then get back on my bike once I’m on the path?

I would be a fan of bike licensing. But I just can’t imagine what the process is for something like this.

* The difficulty in keeping a database complete and current
* The difficulty in licensing children, given that they ride bikes too
* Licensing in and of itself does not change the behaviour of cyclists who are disobeying traffic laws.

But I want @SineadBrown to know that, maybe if she’s really lucky, the thief may return her bike because it happened to me.

The Story Of A Nice Bike Thief

I used to live on a main Toronto street on top of a store. I always locked my bike up right in front of my place (not Grandpa’s, my other one *see below). One day I locked it up by the front wheel only (never, ever do this). So someone came and unhinged the wheel and took the rest of my bike.

When I saw the lasting remains of my bike, I was devastated. This was my mode of transportation; it’s how I got everywhere, and it was my freedom! I remember being so upset I told everyone who walked by about my stolen bike and how pissed off I was. Some people cared, others just walked quickly pass me. Just like @SineadBrown, I felt like a crazy person. I’m pretty sure a single tear rolled down my cheek that day.

Later that day, I was supposed to meet up with a friend for dinner. I was mad because it meant I had to leave my house 30 minutes earlier than usual to take the horrendous TTC to College St. But lo and behold, when I left my house, my bike had returned! There, sitting on the post like it never left me, was my bike reunited with its wheel. I was thrilled (again I think a single tear rolled down my cheek).

I figured the person who stole my bike must have seen how much it upset me. And so the thief took the time to sit and think about what he/she had done. I was so happy I yelled thank you in hopes the thief would hear me.

I don’t know what drives people to steal bikes. But to help stop it – lock up your bike and lock it up properly.

An interesting study in mid-May found there was no evidence cycle helmet laws reduce head injuries.

Some key points from the study:

For Canadian provinces with helmet laws, admission rates to hospitals dropped 54 per cent for young people between 1994 and 2003, the period during which laws were being brought in.

However rates were dropping in provinces without legislation as well — although, at 33 per cent, not quite so steeply.

Helmet laws produced little change in adult admission rates, which were low and stable throughout the study period.

For every province with legislation, the decline in hospital admissions for head-related cycling injuries actually started years before a law was introduced.

All in all, the author of the study concludes the decrease in head injuries after the passing of the helmet law is mostly due to other changes made around the same time, such as bike lanes and awareness of biker safety. She indicated that the contribution of helmet laws, to the decrease in hospital admissions for bicycle-related injuries, has been minimal.

But the study doesn’t mean helmet laws are worthless: there simply isn’t a correlation between just the helmet law and the decrease in injury. As with most things, the band-aid effect doesn’t work. There are many factors at play here that contribute to a biker’s safety.

Quebec – no legislation; even though as mentioned in a previous blog post, Montreal is North America’s premiere bicycle city…

New Brunswick – all ages; fine up to $21

Nova Scotia – all ages; fine up to 128.75

PEI– all ages; fine up to $100

Newfoundland – no legislation

Yukon – no legislation

NWT – no legislation

Nunavut – no legislation

I think one of the most telling things here, is that Quebec has no enforced legislation and yet Montreal is one of the top biking cities in the world. Which makes sense that the study’s author concludes that bike lanes and awareness of biker safety is key in reducing head injuries.

Bike lanes and awareness of biker safety is something that doesn’t exist in Toronto, and so I urge all Torontonians to wear their helmets.

For my first two years of commuting by bike in the city, I didn’t wear a helmet in the morning because I liked the windblown hair look. I was an idiot. Now I almost always wear my helmet (every once in a while my helmet does end up where my bike isn’t…) and if I’m not wearing it, I feel like an idiot.

So here’s my take, don’t be an idiot. Under 18 or not, your head is pretty important so protect it. And there are so many great and cool helmet selections out there now, you’ll look hip and most importantly, not like an idiot. I have a Bell helmet – and they have a great ‘Artist Series’ I just saw online. Maybe it’s time for a new helmet…

Today, my plan was to plant my garden, but it’s ANOTHER rainy day so instead I’m online daydreaming about new bike accessories! There’s really a ridiculous amount of cool bike toys. Whenever I go into a bike store, I’m like a kid in a candy shop and typically I want to buy all the useless but prettiest baskets, lights, bells and whistles.

As mentioned in my last post, one imperative thing on my to-do list is to get a new front bike light. For the last three years, I had ‘Frog Lights’.

Knog Frog Bike Lights

These lights are versatile and easily slip on to any bike (no wrenches or screwdrivers required) but I never felt super safe because they just weren’t quite bright enough. I think the company felt the same way because I can’t find these lights on their online store anymore. Since they are super easy to put on any bike, in any spot, at any time, I will still look into buying another Knog light, preferably one of those strobe lights … Knog Silicone Lights. I’ve been blinded by other cyclists super bright strobe lights, and I would kind of like to do the same. That’s safety.